This is the second such incident this month. During the first week of March, a 24-year-old woman was booked for smoking on a plane.
The Bengaluru International Airport police arrested a 20-year-old man who was caught by the cabin crew of an IndiGo flight, for smoking in the lavatory.
The incident, which is the second of its kind just this month at the Kempegowda International Airport, happened on Friday, 17 March. The first incident was reported during the first week of March.
According to the city police, the accused has been identified as Shehari Choudari, a native of Cachar district in Assam. Seheri was previously working as a salesman at a mall in the city and is unemployed at present.
He was returning to Bengaluru from Assam in search of a job, a senior police officer said.
While the flight was mid-air, Seheri went into the washroom and smoked a cigarette. The incident came to light when passengers got a whiff of the strong odour and saw smoke coming out of the lavatory — they alerted the cabin crew.
The crew rushed to the washroom and confronted Seheri. On landing, he was handed over to the airport security staff — the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel — who in turn handed him over to the Bengaluru International Airport police.
Based on a complaint from one of the cabin crew members, the airport police arrested Seheri after booking him under Section 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3(1) C of the Civil Aviation Act, 1982.
The incident happened on IndiGo flight 6E-716, which was bound to Bengaluru from Kolkata.
Earlier, the Bengaluru International Airport police had arrested a 24-year-old woman named Priyanka C on 5 March, who had boarded an IndiGo flight flight from Kolkata and was caught smoking inside the lavatory mid-air.
The cabin crew had asked her to open the toilet door and when she did, they found a cigarette lying in the dustbin. The crew put it out with water.
She was also handed over to the CISF personnel as soon as the flight landed in Bengaluru. She was later released on bail.